Following a string of cancelled races (we can all empathise with that!), #TeamTCUK athlete, Ed Crisp, decided to do the Aviemore Long Hard Durty Triathlon anyway...here's his report!

2020 has not been an ordinary year by any stretch of the imagination what was due to be my first season of racing after training with TCUK has turned out to be something of a damp squib.

As we emerged from winter and started to think of the 2020 race season warning signs were starting to show I was lucky enough to be on week one of the TCUK Lanzarote training camp having a rare old time but keeping one eye on the news as Covid-19 started to get a stranglehold on the planet.

The poor souls on week two of the Lanza training camp weren’t quite so lucky, Covid-19 restrictions turning an all action pre-season training session into essentially a pub lock-in.

Now facing lockdown and the cancellation of sporting events at all levels it was always going to be hard to stay motivated as event by event that had been signed up to were cancelled.

My “A” race for the year was to be the Nottingham Outlaw Half. Together with my coach, Matt, we continued to work towards race day but it was all for nothing as the inevitable happened – it was cancelled. This news took the wind out of my sails somewhat. Not to worry I still had the Erewash Sprint Triathlon lined up so another discussion with Matt and adjustments to the training schedule. We had now set our sights on Sprint distance and that elusive sub-1 hour I’ve been trying to do for at least half a decade now. Alas the news came…cancelled.

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Not one to be deterred by minor setbacks, I discovered one of my lower priority races was still on: The Aviemore Long Hard Durty Off Road Triathlon. Another discussion with Matt, road bike returned to the garage, clean last year’s mud off the mountain bike and away we go again.

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Family holiday organised around the event, hotel booked, training and racing kit packed, wife and dog in tow, we set off for Aviemore in the Scottish Highlands. The weather was looking good for a week of holiday/tapering and racing on the Sunday.

The week was a dream, great weather, ideal training environment, highly calorific Scottish food to fuel up for the weekend’s race – what more could you ask for??

And then it happened, 11am on the Friday…Race cancelled. So, what to do now?

Well, I’m in Aviemore. I have all my kit. A friend who’s never done a tri before with me is here and and I’m carrying half a stone of nutrition on board in the form of full Scottish breakfasts from the week prior. The sun’s out and I know the route so let’s just get out there and do it anyway!

What a day out it turned out to be. Loch Morlich was like glass, the mountain bike route was devoid of people and the trail run was bliss.

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OK, so it wasn’t an official event, the transitions were a bit more casual than they would have been in the real thing but the improvements in my performance on the bike and the run were significant from the previous year.

What have I learnt from the extraordinary events of this year?

Without a specific goal in sight it can be hard to keep going.

A solid base has made race specific adaptions a welcome break in routine.

When life hands you lemons, make Limoncello.

Cheers!